Peanut Butter and Jelly, Batman and Robin, Eagles, and the Super Bowl. These are just a few things that go well with one another, just like Obsidian Entertainment and compelling games. Over the years, Obsidian Entertainment has earned a reputation for creating games that are known for hooking you in for hours on end and often forcing players to make tough decisions on the fly. Thankfully, Avowed is no different; from beginning to end, players are thrown into stressful situations that often force them to draw a line in the sand, ultimately affecting how NPC treats them and how their story unfolds.
Avowed
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Price: $69.99
Platform: PC, Xbox Series X/S (reviewed)
MonsterVine was supplied with an Xbox code for review
Like many open-world games, Avowed has a rich character customization tab. Well, most of these are purely for cosmetic reasons, with features like hairstyles, skin color, and lip size. Some of them are more meaningful than others and will drastically affect your game down the road. Various backgrounds that players can pick from play a significant part in how their character views the world.
For example, selecting Arcane Scholar makes them more prone to understanding complex things. But with something like War Hero, they’ll have a more intimate knowledge of fighting. That’s all without mentioning the Godlike features you can select. Without getting too much into it, this creates an even more unique run if selected. It’ll make players’ characters noticeably different from everyone else and often create interesting dialog options.
World Building
Of course, Avowed is a rich and complicated world. So much so that the game does a massive lore dump even before players get to the character creation menu. This served as a double-edged sword for my playthrough of the game. Obsidian Entertainment asks a lot of its players early on, which makes it more or less a requirement to learn all the key factions and people. Because if players don’t, you’ll be like me and confused for a good chunk of the game.
But once the time is taken to stop and learn the world, that’s where the magic truly begins. Players can appreciate the game even more profoundly than they may have initially. There are a lot of moving parts, and the further you progress into the main story, the more complicated things become.
So, learning the world in which you are in is absolutely necessary. Even more so when the world is filled with vengeful gods, sassy dwarfs, and fish folks you would absolutely die for.
At times, Avowed can be generic. The gameplay starts like many RPGs do. For example, at the beginning of the game, players wake up in a foreign land and are immediately greeted by someone who knows how vital their character is, so they take it upon themselves to get them to safety. But that’s not to say it’s a bad thing at all. If anything, it adds to the charm of Obsidian Entertainment and is a friendly reminder of a time when tropes like that were as familiar as pressing A to jump. Like you expect from the same studio that brought us classics like Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, Avowed took me on both a literal and figurative journey.
Traveling To Foreign Lands
The game begins with players waking up in a foreign nation known as the Living Lands. There, they quickly learn that they were sent there on a mission by their own homeland’s faceless emperor in hopes of stopping a plague that is running rampant in this nation that your people are trying to conquer.
Even though players may be there for a noble cause, it doesn’t mean that your home country is. More often than not, the locals will treat you with disrespect by saying snide remarks or saying something like “go back to where you came from.”
This creates some unique interactions. On the one hand, you’re trying to do something genuinely good, but the wrongs of your homeland often overshadow it. This is where players face a massive moral dilemma. Depending on players’ personal views, their homeland can easily be seen as the bad guys taking over a foreign land so that they can extend their borders. On the other hand, it can also be viewed as a group of people trying to bring order to a land filled with chaos and crime.
This alone thrust me into a position where I was focused on deciding whether I wanted my character to stay loyal to a nation they grew up in or side with the locals in hopes of gaining some independence while fighting a hostile empire.
Imperialism isn’t the only message the game gets into. Without giving too much of the main plot away, a key focus in the game is the preservation of Mother Nature. The world of Avowed is one with magic and wonders. That’s not to say it’s without its faults; some of these cause major catastrophic events. Just like the other main story beats, depending on players’ output on things, they could easily go against the natural order or attempt to preserve it. But some things are better left for players to discover, and the less you know about that beat, the better because it’ll add an extra layer of charm for them down the road.
It’s The Friends You Meet Along The Way
Often, an RPG is only as good as the party members players can recruit. Thankfully, Avowed goes above and beyond to deliver on that. Each party member brings something a little different to the table. For instance, the first party member players meet is more of your generic fighter, while others might fit more into a ranger and or spell caster class.
Finding the right combination of party members becomes almost like a song and dance. On the one hand, players may like having nothing but spell casters to play the backfield, but at the same time, it leaves them open for melee-based enemies to come up and attack them. So, finding that balance is key and could vary based on how they build their character.
That’s all without mentioning the baggage they bring to the table. Every party member you come across is flawed in their own way. Some are trying to escape their past and live up to impossible expectations, while others are just trying to make a name for themselves.
What’s also nice is that each party member you meet along the way feels like they belong there and adds extra layers to the story. Like in Mass Effect or Starfield, players can learn about their party on a deeper level. There are small campsites where you can rest for the night and upgrade gear. In addition, players can take the time to talk to them and learn interesting facts about their personal lives, such as their hobbies and aspirations. This is yet another tidbit that makes The Living Lands feel worthy of its name.
Unfortunately, though, not every party member has their proper limelight moment. Some of their stories feel rushed and cramped into the main story beats. This is nice because it further shows they’re just as important as the player’s character. On the other hand, it removes some of the personal flair you get while completing other storylines that are a bit more self-contained. But the way they’re ingrained into the main plot more than makes up for it.
The Call To Action
Story beats aside, Avowed is an extremely fun game to play. The Living Lands is filled with little nooks and crannies for players to discover. One thing that is hard to do in open-world games is encourage players to explore without feeling overwhelmed. Obsidian Entertainment combats this by breaking up the world into regions that don’t feel intimidating to find new things. Exploring never felt like a chore; it was quite the opposite. The second I saw a bunch of grey on the map, I was excited to start adding color because I knew whatever was on the other side was worth discovering.
For instance, you’ll be walking in the woods and stumble across a random cave, only to find out it’s holding some ancient secret lying dormant. Or you’ll be walking down the street minding your own business and end up being interrupted by an NPC who needs your help to solve some random issue because they can’t do it themselves. These instances create a unique sense of wonder, making exploring essential to the game. Without it, you’ll miss fun quests or valuable items you can use down the line.
This is all without mentioning the game’s combat system. Living in 2025, skill trees have almost become a horror genre within themselves with the sheer number of options. Thankfully, Avowed takes a step back and simplifies it in a way that’s nowhere near as scary as most RPGs. On top of that, players don’t need to fear accidentally wasting a skill point. Because Avowed has a system in place in which players spend in-game money to respec. So, if you get tired of being a fighter, you can easily switch to spell caster or gunslinger with a few buttons.
Players will essentially have two load-outs that they’ll be able to switch from on the fly, and depending on your build, they can be vastly different from one another. To give you an idea of how different they can be. My first load-out was 100% magic with a wand in one hand and a spell book in the other. My second load-out consisted of me holding a shield in one hand and a pistol in the other. Did it make sense? No. But did it look cool? Absolutely. This is just another reason why I enjoyed my time with Avowed.
The Final Word
I’m happy to report that Avowed has the sauce, and this is perhaps Obsidian Entertainment at its absolute best. Every time I stepped away from the game to do something else, all I could think about was how much I wanted to step back into this world and find new things. The more I thought about the game, the more I enjoyed it. Avowed is a game that asks a lot of its players but delivers on it, too. It creates a unique sense of exploration while covering intense topics such as imperialism and nature preservation with a fun combat system that encourages you to try new things.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
